Complete MoP Shaman Changes (Updated: 04/08/2012)

I'm officially unsticking this as of 12/09/12. The beta isn't seeing major changes other than occasional tuning tweaks, and this thread has served its purpose, tracking beta changes for those without beta access.

Last updated: 04/08/2012

I have moved the in-progress change data to a new third post, and am converting this first post over to be a more clear and easy-to-read list of the upcoming changes, now that Mists of Pandaria has a set launch date and further changes are likely to be fewer and further between.

The changes listed here will JUST contain the new tooltips. If you want to know what the original tooltips were, you can check the third post below.

I avoided adjusting most scaling data when I started this, but I will be attempting to add that information back in. For the most part, it is likely to be relatively ugly math rather than a nice number, but that's how our database tooltips look. The scaling data will be entered in with variables (X, Y and the like), but with acronym tags that will let you see the actual ugly math bit if you mouse over the variable, like so; X. Hopefully that hits the sweet spot of being thorough but not blinding people with code.

I am not going to keep updating this whenever we have scaling values changing. They change often, especially as we approach a release candidate, so I will be focusing on mechanical changes primarily.

This thread is closed, but not dead.If you notice anything that has been overlooked or is new, please feel free to PM me about the new information or correction. If you wish to discuss anything in here, feel free to use an existing thread or, if there isn't one available on the topic, start a new thread for that purpose. If we get a massive infodump, please be aware that I'm not Superman and it will take me some time to update everything.

Shaman Changes for Mists of Pandaria

Talents:

The talent system game-wide is being completely rewritten. Classes now get their necessary tools as Class or Spec Abilities, and talents are entirely optional additions.

Nature's Guardian - Whenever a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, your maximum health is increased by 25% for 10 sec and your threat level towards the attacker is reduced. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 30 sec.

Stone Bulwark Totem - Instant - 1 min cooldown - Summons an Earth totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 30 sec that grants the caster a shield absorbing X damage for 10 sec, and up to an additional Y every 5 sec thereafter.

Frozen Power - Your Frost Shock now also roots the target in ice for 5s.

Earthgrab Totem - Instant - 30 sec cooldown - Summons an Earth Totem with 100 health at the feet of the caster for 20 sec. The totem pulses every 5 sec, causing roots to ensnare the legs of all enemies within 10 yards for 5 sec, preventing movement. Enemies that have already been rooted once by the totem will instead have their movement speed reduced by 50%. Replaces Earthbind Totem.

Windwalk Totem - Instant - 1 min cooldown - Summons an Air Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 6 sec. granting raid members within 30 yards immunity to movement-impairing effects.

Tier 3:

Call of the Elements - Instant - 3 min cooldown - When activated, immediately finishes the cooldown on all totems with a base cooldown shorter than 3 minutes.

Totemic Restoration - If a totem is replaced or destroyed before its duration expires naturally, its cooldown is reduced in proportion to the lost duration, up to a maximum of 50% of the full cooldown.

Echo of the Elements was stated to work like Dragonwrath's proc, roughly speaking.

Totemic Restoration is not a 1:1 proportion, it is 1:2; losing 50% of the duration of a totem reduces the cooldown by 25%. Losing 75% of the duration loses 37.5% of the cooldown.

​Glyphs
Prime Glyphs have been removed. Many Primes, which were static boosts, were deliberately changed to be Majors; this change under most circumstances has resulted in a reduction in power, to be more in-line with the intended value of a Major glyph. This list is complete; all of our MoP glyphs are listed herein.

Glyph of Totemic Encirclement. When you cast a totem spell, you also place unempowered totems for any elements that are not currently active. These totems have 5 health and produce no other effects.

Abilities:

New Shaman Class Abilities:

Capacitor Totem. Level 63 - Instant - 45 sec cooldown - Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that gathers electrical energy from the surrounding air and then explodes after 5 sec to stun all enemies within 8 yards for 5 sec.

Earthbind Totem - Instant - 30 sec cooldown - Summons an Earthbind Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 20 sec that slows the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards

Water and Lightning Shields no longer have charges that can cause them to be removed by taking damage, and can stack with other Shaman's Earth Shields;

Water Shield - The caster is surrounded by globes of water, granting 2,138 mana per 5 sec. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, 2928 mana is restored to the caster. This expends one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 60 min. Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Lightning Shield - Instant - The caster is surrounded by a reactive lightning barrier. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for X Nature damage. This effect may only occur once every few seconds. Lasts 60 min. Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Elemental Spec Abilities:

Elemental Fury still adds 50% to Crit damage, and it's been confirmed Elemental will crit for 250% normal damage.

Lava Burst is no longer included in Shamanism, but the cast time has been changed to reflect the after-Shamanism value of 1.5s, meaning the effects have been baked into Lava Burst as there's no need to have it be both Elemental-exclusive AND modified by an Elemental passive

Shamanism - Increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 50% and Chain Lightning by 70%, and reduces the casting time of both spells by 0 sec, and removes the cooldown from Chain Lightning.

Elemental Focus - When you land a non-periodic critical strike with a Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, you enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage or healing spells by 25%, increases spell damage done by 10%, and increases single-target healing done by 50%.

Lava Surge - Now not only resets Lava Burst, but also makes the next cast instant.

Rolling Thunder - While the charge cap is reduced to 7, in practice this is still 6 additional charges over the normal, it has simply been adjusted to the new normal of a passive shield, rather than one with 3 charges.

Dual Wield - No longer increases chance to hit, as the new dual wield hit/expertise system no longer requires it.

Mental Quickness - Your spell power is now equal to 55% of your attack power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of spell power. Your instant beneficial, damaging, and totem spells cost 75% less mana. Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to immediately restore 5% of your mana.

Purification - Increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 25%, and the healing done by your Water totems by an additional 50%. In addition, heals you cast increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.

Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases spell healing by 2,873 and gives each heal a 20% chance to trigger the Earthliving effect on the target, healing an additional X over 12 sec. Single-target direct heals on targets below 35% of maximum health will always trigger this effect. Lasts 60 minutes.

The ELW change still has an increased proc chance for CH and HR, it's merely reduced by the same AoE modifier as the normal procs; the standard is a 20% chance, modified by 0.5 for CH or 0.3 for HR, bringing their chances per jump/tick to 10%/6% respectively. Sub-35% health, single-target direct heals are 100%, CH is 50% per jump, and HR is 30% per tick.

Changelog

Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases spell healing by 2,873 and gives each heal a 20% chance to trigger the Earthliving effect on the target, healing an additional (3,648 + 8.3% of SP) over 12 sec. Single-target direct heals on targets below 35% of maximum health will always trigger this effect. Lasts 60 minutes.

The ELW change still has an increased proc chance for CH and HR, it's merely reduced by the same AoE modifier as the normal procs; the standard is a 20% chance, modified by 0.5 for CH or 0.3 for HR, bringing their chances per jump/tick to 10%/6% respectively. Sub-35% health, single-target direct heals are 100%, CH is 50% per jump, and HR is 30% per tick.

30/07/2012
Moved the original full-data post to a new third post below, rewrote the original to be more user-friendly but not include the complete tally of all changes made to each ability, just the current incarnation.

27/07/2012This water shield change went live a build ago, but I didn't bother adding it to the notes, so first, here it is;

Glyph of Water Shield. Increases the passive mana generation of your Water Shield by 10%, but Water Shield no longer activates when you receive damage.Increases the mana generated reactively by your Water Shield when you are attacked by 50%, but reduces the passive mana generation by 15%.

Beta Build 15913

Water Shield - The caster is surrounded by globes of water, granting 1368 2,138 mana per 5 sec. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster,2928 mana is restored to the caster. This expends one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 60 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.

Stone Bulwark Totem - Instant - 1 min cooldown - Summons an Earth totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 30 sec that grants the caster a shield absorbing 359 damage for 10 sec, and up to an additional 120 every 5 sec thereafter. (This is a tooltip change; the shield always lasted the 10 seconds, and this does not reflect any change to the ability.)

Static Shock - When you use your Stormstrike or Lava Lash abilities while having Lightning Shield active, you have a 45% chance to deal damage equal to a Lightning Shield orb without consuming a charge. (As LS no longer has charges, this is also a tooltip change that does not reflect an actual gameplay change.)

13/07/2012
I'm trying something new; the changes posted in the changelog here are the sole change that has been done since the last Beta build, the main post will continue to try and maintain a record of ALL such changes. I'll try and keep the older changes fading to lighter gray as I update, the current wording will always be the black plus blue additions.

Grace of Air - Passive - Level 80 - Empowering winds swirl around the Shaman, granting all nearby party and raid members 35003000 Mastery.

Ancestral Guidance - Instant - 2 min cooldown - When you deal direct damage or healing for the next 10 sec seconds, 40% of that amount is copied as healing to aup to 3 nearby injured allyparty or raid members.

Conductivity - When you cast Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, or Lightning Bolt on a target located within your Healing Rain, allies standing within the Healing Rain share healing equal to 20% of the initial damage or healing done.When you cast Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Healing Surge on a target located within your Healing Rain, allies within the Healing Rain share healing equal to 20% of the initial healing done. If your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, or Stormstrike damages an enemy standing in your Healing Rain, allies within the Healing Rain share healing equal to 50% of the initial damage done.

Glyph of the Spectral Wolf. Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble a large, spectral wolf.

Glyph of Thunderstorm. Increases the mana you receive from your Thunderstorm spell by 2%, but it no longer knocks enemies back or reduces their movement speed.Removes the knockback effect from your Thunderstorm spell.

[/s]Glyph of Chain Heal. Increases the healing done by your Chain Heal spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%.[s] Removed

. Causes your Earthquake spell to also reduce the movement speed of affected targets by 40% for 3 sec.

Glyph of Telluric Currents. Reduces the damage dealt by your Lightning Bolt spell by 30%, but causes it to restore mana equal to 50% of damage dealt.Causes your Lightning Bolt to restore 10% of your mana when it strikes an enemy.

Only major change seems to be bookkeeping, clearing up the Shamanism and Elemental Fury abilities so that EF provides the Crit boost and Shamanism provides the damage boost, cast time reduction, and CL CD removal. This changes nothing in practice.

30/04/2012

Removed the "no ES debuff" stuff, which dated from the buff mechanics blue post a while back, as Earth Shock still provides a debuff on the beta and it appears they may have either overlooked it for that post, or chose to re-include it after making that post.

Grace of Air and Elemental Blast are on the DB as giving 3,500 Mastery (or Haste or Crit, for EB, whichever's higher), up from 2,717. Since we can't see scaling at level 90 yet, we don't know if this is actually a buff or if it reflects a change to ratings.

27/04/2012
Not much in the latest build.

Glyph of Totemic Vigor now increases the health of totems by 5%, down from 10%.

Elemental Precision no longer buffs mana by 400% and Meditation was removed; these changes were not added to the megapost because both specs still have the +400% mana buff, it's just under Spiritual Insight.

24/04/2012

Damage and healing numbers buffed, some mana costs reduced

Grace of Air - Passive - Level 80 - Empowering winds swirl around the Shaman, granting all nearby party and raid members 52717 Mastery.

Lightning Shield - Instant - The caster is surrounded by 3 balls of lightninga reactive lightning barrier. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for (645 + 29.4% of SP) Nature damage. This expends one lightning ball. Only one ball will fireeffect may only occur once every few seconds. Lasts 60 min.
Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Water Shield - Instant - The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water, granting 1,062 mana per 5 sec. When a spell, melee, or ranged attack hits the caster, the reactive shield generates 2,272 mana is restored to the caster. [s]Only one globe will activate[s] This effect can only occur once every few3 seconds. Lasts 60 min.
Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Rolling Thunder - When you deal damage with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning while your Lightning Shield ability is active, you have a 60% chance to recover 2% of your mana and to generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, up to a maximum of 97 charges.

Elemental Oath - Grants 5% spell haste to all party and raid members within 100 yards.

Lightning Bolt is showing a cast time reduction on WoWDB; this is a bug with WoWDB, and it is not working like that on the actual beta.

16/04/2012

Latest Beta build updates included

Various Glyph assignments adjusted

Minor typos corrected. Some layout issues that seem to be due to bugs relating to the massive amount of color/text codes being used that I can't squash and am choosing to ignore as they don't really break anything.

29/03/2012

Water Shield - The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water, granting [s]407[/s] 1368 mana per 5 sec. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, 8712928 mana is restored to the caster. This expends one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 60 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.

I have moved the raw change data to this third post, and will be attempting to "clean up" the main post to be easier to read at a glance. Now that we're approaching the launch date, changes are likely to slowing down, and it will become more important to have a clear explanation of what's new.

Shaman Changes for Mists of Pandaria

General:

Buff totems - gone. All buffs will be provided via auras, totems will be utility options, so that you never have to choose between utility and your buffs, or refresh totems to maintain those buffs.

Quite a few small quality-of-life improvements that will be detailed completely in the following sections

Talents:

The talent system game-wide is being completely rewritten. Classes now get their necessary tools as Class or Spec Abilities, and talents are entirely optional additions.

Stone Bulwark Totem - Instant - 1 min cooldown - Summons an Earth totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 30 sec that grants the caster a shield absorbing 2649359 damage for 10 sec, and refreshes that shield every 5 sec. up to an additional 120 every 5 sec thereafter.

Repulsion Totem - Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 15 sec that repels enemies.Removed

Tier 2:

Frozen Power - Your Frost Shock now also roots the target in ice for 5s. Originally Tier 1

Earthgrab Totem - Instant - 30 sec cooldown - Summons an Earthgrab Totem with 100 health at the feet of the caster for 4520 sec. The totem pulses every 2 5 sec, causing roots to ensnare the legs of all enemies within 810 yards for 5 sec, preventing movement. Enemies that have already been rooted once by the totem will instead have their movement speed reduced by 50%. Replaces Earthbind Totem.

Windwalk Totem - Instant - 1 min cooldown - Summons an Air Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 6 sec. granting raid members within 30 yards immunity to movement-impairing effects. Originally Tier 3

Totemic Restoration - If a totem is replaced or destroyed before its duration expires naturally, its cooldown is reduced in proportion to the lost duration, up to a maximum of 50% of the full cooldown.

Echo of the Elements - When you cast a damage or healing spell one of your spells causes direct damage or healing, you have a chance to gain Echo of the Elements, duplicating that spell's effect.

Echo of the Elements was stated to work like Dragonwrath's proc, roughly speaking.

Tier 5:

Healing Tide Totem - Instant - 3 min cooldown - Summons a Water Totem with 5 health10% of the caster's health for 10 sec. healing the 5 most injured raid members within 40 yards for 1060 health every 2 sec.The Healing Tide Totem pulses every 2 sec, healing the 5 most injured raid members within 40 for 3179.

Ancestral Guidance - Instant - 2 min cooldown - When you deal direct damage or healing for the next 10 seconds, 40% of that amount is copied as healing to aup to 3 nearby injured allyparty or raid members.

Earthliving Weapon - When you use Unleash Elements on an ally, you are also healed for double the amount of healing done.Further increases the effectiveness of your next single-target heal on the targeted ally by 50%.

Elemental Harmory - You may summon multiple totems of the same element simultaneously.Removed

​Glyphs
These are the new and changed glyphs. There's also a bunch of existing glyphs that weren't changed that I didn't bother including. Many Primes, which were static boosts, were deliberately changed to be Majors and to be tradeoffs, as Majors should be.

Glyph of Telluric Currents. Reduces the damage dealt by your Lightning Bolt spell by 30%, but causes it to restore mana equal to 50% of damage dealt.Causes your Lightning Bolt to restore 10% of your mana when it strikes an enemy.

Glyph of Unstable Earth. Causes your Earthquake spell to also reduce the movement speed of affected targets by 40% for 3 sec.

Glyph of Water Shield. Increases the passive mana generation of your Water Shield by 10%, but Water Shield no longer activates when you receive damage.Increases the mana generated reactively by your Water Shield when you are attacked by 50%, but reduces the passive mana generation by 15%.

Glyph of Wind Shear. Increases the school lockout duration of Wind Shear by 1 sec, but also increases the cooldown by 3 sec.

Glyph of the Spectral Wolf. Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble a large, spectral wolf.

Glyph of Totemic Encirclement. When you cast a totem spell, you also place unempowered totems for any elements that are not currently active. These totems have 5 health and produce no other effects.

Glyph of Thunderstorm. Increases the mana you receive from your Thunderstorm spell by 2%, but it no longer knocks enemies back or reduces their movement speed.Removes the knockback effect from your Thunderstorm spell.

Abilities:

This is just a big list of collected changes for now, taken from the MoP talent calculator and compared to live versions

New Abilities:

New Level 87 ability:

Ascendance - Instant - 3 min cooldown - The Shaman surrenders his physical form to the power of the elements, transforming into a being of raw elemental energy for 15 sec.

Elemental: While in the form of a Flame Ascendant, Lava Burst has no cooldown and Chain Lightning is empowered to become Lava Beam.

Enhancement: While in the form of an Air Ascendant, auto-attacks and Stormstrike deal pure Nature damage and have a 30-yard range.

Restoration: While in the form of a Water Ascendant, all healing done is duplicated and distributed evenly among nearby allies.

Capacitor Totem. Instant - 45 sec cooldown - Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that gathers electrical energy from the surrounding air and then explodes after 5 sec to stun all enemies within 8 yards for 5 sec.

Healing Stream Totem no longer passively AoE heals, it now appears to target the lowest health party/raid member and single-target heal. Think less Totem Healing Rain and more a Searing Totem that heals.

Healing Stream Totem - Instant - 30 sec cooldown - Summons a Healing Stream Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 1 min15 sec that heals the most injured party or raid member within 40 yards for ((0+($SP*0.3124)*1)) every 2 sec.

Cleanse Spirit removes all Curses, not just one Curse, but has an 8s cooldown. This is part of a widespread change to dispel mechanics.

Earthbind Totem - Instant - 1530 sec cooldown - Summons an Earthbind Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 4520 sec that slows the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards

Water Shield - The caster is surrounded by 3 globes of water, granting [s]407[/s] 1368 2,138 mana per 5 sec. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, 871 2928 mana is restored to the caster. This expends one water globe. Only one globe will activate every few seconds. Lasts 60 min. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at any one time.

16/04/12 - Shaman healing was buffed ~42%, the numbers here have NOT been adjusted to reflect this change, the tooltips in the ability links will have the correct data. I'll update it all at some point, until then this warning will be here.

24/04/12 - Another buff to most healing and damage numbers.

Lightning Shield - Instant - The caster is surrounded by 3 balls of lightninga reactive lightning barrier. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for (645 + 29.4% of SP) Nature damage. This expends one lightning ball. Only one ball will fireeffect may only occur once every few seconds. Lasts 60 min.
Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Elemental:

Earthquake, Rolling Thunder, Lava Surge, Elemental Focus, and Fulmination are all spec abilities now. Other talents are either talents, or class abilities, or don't exist (may be glyphs).

Crits are now 200% baseline for all classes, for both spells and physical attacks. Elemental Fury still adds 50%, and it's been confirmed Elemental will crit for 2.5x normal damage.

Elemental is bringing the 5% spell haste buff, but this is not reflected in the talent calculator.

Lava Burst is no longer included in Shamanism, but the cast time has been changed to reflect the after-Shamanism value of 1.5s, meaning the effects have been baked into Lava Burst as there's no need to have it be both Elemental-exclusive AND modified by an Elemental passive

Shamanism - Increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 50% and Chain Lightning by 70%, and reduces the casting time of both spells by 0.50 sec, and [re]moves the cooldown from Chain Lightning.

Elemental Focus - When you land a non-periodic critical strike with a Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, you enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage or healing spells by 25%, increases spell damage done by 10%, and increases single-target healing done by 50%.

Rolling Thunder - When you deal damage with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning while your Lightning Shield ability is active, you have a 60% chance to recover 2% of your mana and to generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, up to a maximum of 97 charges.

Elemental Oath- Grants 5% spell haste to all party and raid members within 100 yards

Dual Wield - You may equip one-handed weapons in your off-hand, and you have a chance to parry incoming frontal melee attacks. and increases your chance to hit with melee attacks by 6%

Mental Quickness - Your spell power is now equal to 55% of your attack power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of spell power. Your instant beneficial, damaging, and totem spells cost 75% less mana. Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to immediately restore 5% of your mana.

Static Shock - When you use your Stormstrike or Lava Lash abilities while having Lightning Shield active, you have a 45% chance to deal damage equal to a Lightning Shield orb without consuming a charge.

Restoration:

Purification - Increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 25%, and the healing done by your Water totems by an additional 50%. In addition, heals you cast increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.